Renowned blues bassist Calvin “Fuzz” Jones, a Greenwood native, was remembered on Tuesday for his enthusiasm as well as his musical ability.
Mr. Jones, 84, died of complications from lung cancer Monday at Baptist Memorial Hospital-DeSoto in Southaven.
Longtime friend and bandmate Bob Margolin said Mr. Jones’ trademarks were his strong electric bass playing, his rocking stage presence and a friendly laugh and smile.
“He was also a great blues singer himself and impressed audiences both live and on recordings where he sang as a guest,” Margolin said. “Personally he greeted every situation, happy or challenging, with his trademark laugh and smile ... The blues world has lost a legend, and there are music lovers all over the world who mourn him.”
A tumor was removed from Mr. Jones’ neck in the late 1990s, but the cancer apparently returned in one lung and he developed pneumonia in the other, Margolin said.
Mr. Jones could not breathe and was rushed to the hospital, but he suffered a heart attack. Though he recovered, his heart was weakened and stopped beating Monday morning.
Mr. Jones spent most of the 1970s playing bass guitar for Muddy Waters, the musician known for developing the early Chicago blues sound. Waters was also born in Mississippi.
“I did visit him last Friday. He was heavily sedated and didn’t know I was there,” Margolin said. “I held his warm hand and knew it wouldn’t be warm much longer. I tried to channel some love to him.”
Mr. Jones had moved to Senatobia in recent years after spending several decades in Chicago.
In a letter sent out to various friends and fans of Mr. Jones, Margolin wrote that the bassist had faced eviction from his apartment but was rescued by generous contributions from fans.
“He appreciated that so deeply, understanding fully that the blues music we all love had brought him your timely help,” Margolin wrote.
Mr. Jones also worked with blues musicians Howlin’ Wolf, Elmore James and Little Walter. While with Waters, Mr. Jones played alongside Margolin, Pinetop Perkins, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, James Cotton, and other well-known musicians.
“His bass playing was strong, clear, and assertive,” Margolin said. “He set the bar high for other players. The Delta blues he learned growing up in Mississippi was a foundation for him, just as it was for Muddy Waters.”
Margolin joined the band at 24. He said playing with Mr. Jones, who was 23 years older, was one of the great thrills of his life.
“Fuzz really rocked when he played,” Margolin said. “He and drummer Willie ‘Big Eyes’ Smith had a rhythm section sound that was distinctive and recognizable as the heartbeat of the 1970s Muddy Waters Blues Band.”
Smith said their sound came about naturally.
“After being together so long, you just knew what the other man was thinking,” he said. “You do your part and you make it sound good.”
Smith said he and Mr. Jones never quit playing the blues.
“We knew that music was changing, but we didn’t want to go to far,” he said. “We stuck to our guns and played what we knew.”
Smith said the two of them were extremely close. They would sit around and engage in intimate conversations, sharing “things that you wouldn’t tell anyone else.”
“We always liked to talk about music. It meant the same thing to us,” he said. “It was spiritual.”
Smith said the two last played together last year. He doesn’t recall where, but he said it was somewhere overseas.
“The last time I talked to him — not too long ago — I called when I was coming out of Texas,” he said. “He just sounded like the old Fuzz.”
Margolin said “Fuzz” also enjoyed fishing, catching up with friends and playing cards.
“For such a light-hearted fellow, he got very serious when he played cards,” Margolin said.
Margolin said one of his favorite stories was from a 1976 tour early one morning while driving on I-80 out of Chicago.
Mr. Jones and Smith were driving Waters’ two vans when both were pulled over by a state trooper. The officer took the two men into his cruiser with him. A few minutes later they emerged laughing after vaguely answering the officers’ questions.
Apparently, when the trooper asked how fast they were going, Smith said he didn’t know. When he asked Mr. Jones, he said, “I don’t know...I was following him!”
“The trooper gave up and let them go,” Margolin said. “Willie and Calvin could be funny, but on a bandstand and recordings, they are a legendary Chicago blues rhythm section.”
Margolin said Mr. Jones’ strength and good humor were inspiring.
“(Older blues musicians) had lived much harder lives than I did, and faced their challenges with strength, grace, and good humor,” he said. “If one of them had a problem with each other, they’d do what it took to make it right and then forgive and forget.
“Fuzz thought enough about his music and the road to understand himself and life and music and romance.”
Margolin said he would like to be able to tell Mr. Jones one more time that he had “gotten more from knowing him than I could ever give back.”
Smith said people shouldn’t be worried about “Fuzz.”
“He’s done paid the debt that we are all going to have to pay,” Smith said. “We’re the ones that should be worried.”
• Contact Taylor Kuykendall at tkuykendall@gwcommonwealth.com.
